Baby Please? Couples Use Crowdfunding For In Vitro Fertilization

Sonya Eskridge is a writer from Maryland, who started her news career in radio at the age of 17. After graduating from Virginia Tech, she went on to write for a national publication where she was able to mold her personal voice. Always looking for ways to inform on important issues--or share her love of nerdy and girly things—Sonya thoroughly enjoys writing about a wide range of subjects.

Thousands of couples have trouble conceiving every year, and many of them shell out an upwards of $10,000 for in vitro fertilization, according to WebMD.com. Well now parent hopefuls are starting to pick up on a new trend to foot the bill: crowd funding campaigns that ask others to help pay the costs of starting a family.

Realizing they may not be able to pull it off on their own, social media-savvy couples with limited resources have taken to GoFundMe.com to see who would be willing to help them cover such huge costs. A quick search of “in vitro” on the crowd-funding website will turn up thousands (literally thousands) of campaigns to assist couples with the overwhelming cost.

Deirdre Alby and her husband Harold are one such couple, who are desperately trying to raise $32,000 for the IVF treatment they need to conceive a baby. They’ve been struggling with fertility for the last two years. In their quest to have a child they’ve endured unsuccessful IVF treatments and even surgery.

Now, their best hope is to use donors, but Deirdre would still like to carry the child. They’ve got six shots to make it work, but they’re still pushing to raise the money they need to at least try.

Most of these fertility fundraisers don’t offer up rewards like other campaigns do (what could you possibly give anyone in return for something like this?), but Deirdre and Harold have lined up some nice thank you gifts like beauty products and tickets to a show.

Center for Bioethics and Culture President Jessica Lahl isn’t crazy about these campaigns. “It’s pretty cynical and presumptuous to ask friends, family and strangers for money for crazy expensive IVF,” she told the Daily Mail. “It’s tacky and tasteless. What are they going to ask for next? The child’s private school or college fund?”

These baby making methods — and the fundraising efforts to make them happen — may come from a place of privilege. Not everyone can conceive easily, but not everyone can indulge in this way of bringing a child into the world either. But is there anything wrong with asking for help when you truly want to make something happen? With fundraisers for potato salad and White Privilege lately, a campaign for IVF almost seems like a noble thing to donate to!